


Tiny Moments

by relinquish_one_bullet



Category: Fallout 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 08:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13970994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relinquish_one_bullet/pseuds/relinquish_one_bullet
Summary: So this was supposed to be finished monthss ago when my very best friend and eternal sister was in a funk. I thought this might brighten her mood and then life swiftly kicked me over with responsibilities and here it’s sat until now. We brainstormed the idea together so it’s really just me putting her genius on the page and I hope she doesn’t mind (especially that I borrowed her character’s name and basically went ahead with this and I’m sorry if you’re mad I love you forever ok?).Note: Short, ridiculous, I can't write endings.





	Tiny Moments

“Wait…like _never_ never?” 

“Blue you’re wasting your time. A lot of people don’t keep up with old traditions anymore.” Piper chipped in from her spot at the table, kicking her feet up and managing a disinterested shrug all in the same movement

“Right but I’ve seen pumpkins. They’re still here.” Tesla pointed to the back field where wild plants still took over, “I mean, yeah they’re purple and enormous but they’re still pumpkins and it’s still almost Halloween.” 

“And you just…carve them?” Danse was unimpressed, “For what purpose?” 

“For _fun_!” Tesla threw her hands up, “You carve Halloween designs into pumpkins and then put little candles inside and put them on your front porch for when trick or treaters come by.”

“Well, I think eet sounds delightful.” Curie chirped, still getting used to her limbs and the way her expressions came so easily 

“That’s it.” Tesla stood, clamoring on top of the table to get a view of everyone, “Tonight we’re having a pumpkin carving contest. Go grab a pumpkin and meet back here!” 

She hopped off the table, recruiting Sturges and Preston to help find more tables to stack beside one another. The rest of the group meandered over curiously, watching her work. 

“So a contest, eh?” Hancock leaned heavy against the wall, “Sign me up.” 

“Yeah Nat and I carve pumpkins every year, I’m in.” Piper added, unmoving 

“I would very much like to partake in theese most human of ceremonies.” Curie was busy helping push tables together, still aflutter at the idea

“I uh, think my carving days are behind me.” Nick stated, though he stayed by nonetheless

“You can be the judge.” Tesla replied with a grin and Nick stood a little taller

“Well, I uh…I guess I could do that, sure.” 

“What about you, Danse?” Tesla shimmed past him, pulling a sheet over the table as she went

“This seems like an enormous waste of time.” He replied, grouchy

“Well we’re all wasting our time together so you’re in too.” She glided past him, “Cait?”

“Pass.”

“ _Cait_.”

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes, toying with a knife

“MacCready?” She went for the stack of sheets Preston was carrying

“Oh yeah, I’m totally ready to beat all of you.” He flexed his fingers and grinned

“Where’s Deacon?” 

“Present.” He stepped out from under an awning, viewing the display with a grin and sneakily winking at Tesla, “I’m always down for a little friendly competition.”

“May I participate as well, mum?” Codsworth twirled almost nervously and Tesla laughed

“Of course, Codsworth. Just don’t show us all up.”

“I shall try my very best, mum!” 

“X6?” He emerged from the shadows for a moment, glancing at the rest of the group with a mixture of both disgust and boredom

“No.”

“But…”

“No, _thank you_.” And with that he continued walking past the group and on down the streets of Sanctuary 

“Ok.” Tesla shrugged and turned back, “Preston? Sturges? Mama Murphy?”

“Oh what the heck, kid, I’m in.” Mama Murphy settled into a chair and Preston pushed her gently to the table, “But someone else better bring me a pumpkin, I’m tired.”

“I’ll help, Mama Murphy.” Preston stated, shaking his head and moving towards the rogue pumpkin patch at the back of the settlement 

Tesla took off after him, already eyeing a pumpkin much too large. She dragged it back, much to the amusement of the group, and set it at the head of the table. 

“All right, we just need some knives…”

“ _Got it._ ”

It was Cait and Hancock simultaneously as they pulled knives from various places. Two from each boot on Cait, one hidden behind Hancock’s belt, another in the boning of Cait’ corset. It seemed never ending. In these moments, Tesla knew without a doubt she’d woken up in a strange, foreign place. 

The rest of the group was slowly making their way over, pumpkins of varying sizes lining the tables. Tesla sank into her seat, eyeing the pumpkin from different angles as Dogmeat yawned and curled up under her chair with a soft sigh. 

“Ah mum, it’s just like the good old days.” Codsworth gushed, swiping mechanical, whirling knives in various directions, “Why we had such beautiful pumpkins that year, do you remember? The talk of the town miss, the talk of the town.”

He spun around once more and then plopped the top of the pumpkin back into place. If he’d had the ability to beam, Tesla was sure he’d be doing so now, admiring the perfectly symmetrical, entirely cookie cutter jack-o-lantern in front of him. 

“And…done.” He hovered beside it and then turned every which way to watch the others carving their own 

“Ya know, Blue, this isn’t a half bad idea.” Piper was cutting the top off her pumpkin, squishing the insides out onto the table into a mess

“And you just reminded me of the best part.” Tesla stated, abandoning her pumpkin to pick through the pumpkin innards 

“Ah this eez most enjoyable.” Curie sliced through a third of her pumpkin, apparently not quite grasping the idea, “I feel I am relaxing every moment.”

“Ya know, I often feel the same way.” Hancock remarked as she sliced into the pumpkin again, “I mean about stabbing things. Relaxes me.” 

He settled into his chair in front of a modest pumpkin, slowly toying with the dagger in his hand, moving it expertly between his fingers. Beside him, Cait was using an ancient Halloween decoration as a stencil, cursing under her breath. 

“Ah…yours is…well it appears to be…ah…” Codsworth trailed off as he hovered behind MacCready

“It’s grognak.” He retorted, cutting jagged lines into the pumpkin, “And it’s not finished, back off.”

“Why do humans play with food?” Strong sauntered by and Tesla stood to block him from running right into the table, “Strong just eat food. Grow big.”

“Right we will eat them. Sort of.” Tesla held her hands up and Strong plopped onto the ground near Dogmeat, picking at something in his teeth, “But for now let’s just take it easy.”

Strong shrugged and she went back to picking out pumpkin seeds and putting them into an overused metal pan. Deacon sauntered over to the table, placing an untouched pumpkin down beside Codsworth’s and then getting to work on copying it.

“I didn’t know you could carve a pumpkin with a hammer.” Tesla mumbled, glancing over at Sturges as he worked, flinging bits of pumpkin away from some intricate design 

“You’d be surprised just how much you can do with a hammer.” Sturges replied good naturedly 

“Not sure I’m interested in _that_ particular kink.” Hancock mumbled, “Uh…no judgment though.”

Sturges glared but didn’t respond, just went back to work on his pumpkin. Mama Murphy was busy drawing flowers, using what appeared to be an old paint set to draw colorful plants instead of carving anything at all. 

“Uh mum?!” Codsworth’s panicked voice rang out over the murmuring voices of the rest of the group, “Mum I believe he’s _cheating_.”

“Oh Codsworth, it’s not cheating.” Deacon paused between trying to switch his half-finished pumpkin with Codsworth’s, “The best form of flattery is imitation, buddy.”

Codsworth merely took his pumpkin away to another table and stayed close beside it. Deacon ran a hand through his hair, shifting his sunglasses slightly down his nose to glance over at Tesla. 

“Looks like it’s time for plan B.” He snuck away from the group, slipping into the house they’d recently renovated as bedrooms for most of the group 

“I just think we could be spending this time doing something more productive, that’s all.” Danse complained

“Well if you’re so against the idea, I’ll take your pumpkin and throw it out and you can do whatever it is you want to do.” Preston retorted, working on an outline of a cat on his pumpkin 

“…everyone else seems to be enjoying it…I guess it’s an attempt at team building…” Danse mumbled off to himself, hunched over his pumpkin where he’d already half carved out a brotherhood of steel symbol 

“Well, these are looking real good.” Valentine moved among the chairs, admiring the pumpkins

“Ha ha, dog likes Strong.” Strong was standing again and Tesla warily watched him, too near the table, “Dog wants to play.”

And with that the two of them bounded down the hill together. Tesla let out a sigh of relief, running her fingers through her hair. She tossed some salt into the pan with the seeds, tossing them around as they crackled. 

“These are poor imitations.” X6 passed by with an unamused expression across his face, “If you were to do this properly, you would have measured…”

“Oi get out of here ya hunk of bolts, nobody asked your opinion.” Cait replied, hunkering closer to her pumpkin which looked nothing like the stencil she’d used 

X6 didn’t reply, simply making his way down to the pumpkin patch. Soon, over the roar of Strong playing with Dogmeat, they heard a laser canon blasting into the pumpkins. Tesla stared down at the patch to see X6 making designs of his own, pretending he was using the pumpkins for target practice.

“All right, almost finished.” MacCready stated, grinning 

“Huh, d’you change your idea to…”

“No.” MacCready glared, “It’s grognak. There’s his head…his arm…”

Valentine scratched his head thoughtfully and MacCready gave out an exasperated sigh. 

“Leave it to a metal man to judge this, great idea.” He muttered sarcastically

“Mine’s done too.” Cait leaned back to expose what appeared to be a crater in the side of her pumpkin

There was a moment of silence as the group eyed the pumpkin and then exchanged glances, waiting for someone to speak up and ask what it was. When no one dared, a chorus of praise was mumbled through the group and Cait appeared appeased. 

“Mum?!” 

Tesla turned to watch Deacon, another terrible costume on, attempting to steal Codsworth’s pumpkin again. He sighed, taking off a sombrero and sauntering over to Tesla as she cooked. 

“Plan B didn’t work?” She teased, biting her lip 

“Well, I was hoping you’d be done with your pumpkin by now so I could steal yours…” He grinned and nudged her with his shoulder 

The rest of the group seemed more or less done. Danse grumbled quietly was stayed ever protective over his pumpkin. Mama Murphy painted one side, a psychedelic display of flowers and rainbows and bright, bright colors, and then relaxed back against her chair to watch the others. 

Piper had a craved out a ghost, and it looked pretty good from where Tesla was standing. Hancock, perhaps, was the biggest surprise of all. He’d made an almost perfect, terribly frighning jack-o-lantern, though he didn’t draw much attention to himself and stole away to the edge of the group. Tesla guessed she probably shouldn’t have been surprised he was good with knives. 

Preston carved a simple cat and beside him Sturges had started what appeared to be a jack-o-lantern that quickly got derailed into some intricate type of blueprint. Maybe for a motor? Or a gun? Or…possibly a light fixture? It was hard to tell. 

Tesla’s pumpkin remained half-finished but she didn’t mind. Already she felt lighter, just having the group get along for once. Sometimes she forgot how long they’d all been at this, how new she was to the playing field. Moments like this were rare in the commonwealth anymore and she was glad she’d been apart of it. 

“You did good, Blue.” Piper seemed to read her mind and gave her a curt nod and a grin 

She grinned back in return and had everyone line up their pumpkins on the table so Valentine could judge them. He seemed uncomfortable for the first time, rubbing the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe to explain that they were all good and he couldn’t possibly choose (or maybe to stroke the egos of some of the more sensitive in the group) but he never got to finish. 

“HA HA!” Strong was back, “Run, dog, run!” 

It all happened so fast, Tesla could barely react. Dogmeat ran below the table, chasing after what appeared to be a stick, and Strong was bounding up behind him. If Strong had any inclination to stop, he certainly didn’t show it as he barreled through the table and thus through all the pumpkins on display. 

Purple pumpkin guts went flying through the air, most of the pumpkins destroyed and trampled on as everyone moved to get out of the way. There was a moment of silence, as the group all stared down at their work, crumbled into a sticky, purple, mess and then Tesla began laughing. 

Really laughing. Belly laughing. Tears rose in her eyes and her sides hurt terribly. Her laugher seemed infectious because soon the rest of the group was laughing too, shaking their heads. Deacon wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her tight, and the group closed in on her cooking pot. 

“Well…that was something.” Valentine finally broke the silence and the group murmured agreements 

“All our work, it eez destroyed.” Curie seemed to be the only one upset (although Danse and MacCready both glanced back at the pile of pumpkins thoughtfully)

“We still have the best part.” Tesla stated, pouring the roasted seeds into a few large bowls

The group spread out around the cooking fire, a makeshift bonfire, and she passed the bowls around for them all to enjoy. Already the sun was setting, the stars poking through a radioactive sky. It felt good, normal. 

“You did good, Tesla.” Deacon repeated Piper’s earlier compliment into her hair, pressing a rogue kiss to her temple as she sighed, relaxing against him

She finally felt herself take a breath, a real breath, her head clear. For this moment, however short, she was happy and content to have them all here with her. 

“Although next time, let’s pick something I’m especially good at.” He added as she rolled her eyes, “Maybe a costume contest?”


End file.
